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The helicoid – El Helicoide – was designed to symbolize a rich and promising country.
However, it is now home to one of Venezuela's most violent jails and depicts the decline of a country on the verge of collapse.
Last week, the crisis in the country gained a new chapter: the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, declared himself acting president with the support of other countries, such than Brazil and the United States.
"Instant Modernity"
The helicoid was built in the 1950s, when Venezuela, motivated by profits from oil exports, dreamed.
At that time, the world was rebuilt after the Second World War. Venezuelan dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez wanted to project the image of a country of the future.
"This idea of instant modernity was very much invested," said Lisa Blackmore, co-author of Downward Spiral: The Downhill Shopping Mall in Helicoide Spiral Down: The Helicoidal Decline of the Shopping Mall for the purpose of imprisonment "and director of Latin American Studies at the University of Esbad in the United Kingdom
" Venezuela is a country that, in 1948, be ruled by a military dictatorship whose motto was: "let us progress if we build". "
The Helicoid would be the world's first commercially accessible shopping center with ramps leading to the 300 stores planned for the C & # 39; was so large that we could see it from n & # 39; anywhere in Caracas.
"This is an absolutely iconic building, there was not as much in all of Latin America," says Blackmore
For years, much of the building was empty. in the 19's 80, the government began to transfer some agencies to the helicoid, the most important being the SEBIN (Bolivarian Intelligence Service).
The BBC World Service, the BBC's Spanish news service, has interviewed former detainees, relatives of detainees, lawyers, NGOs and two former prison officers. to rebuild their interiors for the first time.
They asked us to protect their identity because they fear government retaliation.
Rosmit Mantilla arrived in Helicoid in May 2014. He was among the 3,000 people arrested during anti-government protests that rocked the country.
At age 32, he was already a well-known political activist and advocate for LGBT rights.
During his arrest, Mantilla was elected as a federal deputy to Venezuela's National Assembly, becoming the first gay parliament in the country.
Political and Economic Turmoil
As life in Venezuela became increasingly difficult, with inflation reaching new heights, shortages of food, commodities, medicines and utilities on the verge of collapse, on the helicoid, daily life was dynamic.
Busloads of prisoners arrived daily in prison.
Students, political activists and sometimes people, including children, were arrested because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mantilla was accused of helping to fund the protests. He denies the charges.
Manuel, a former penitentiary, remembers Mantilla very well.
"He was one of those inmates who should never have been there," Manuel says.
The former prison guard told the BBC Mundo: "In arresting many people, the goal was to sow fear in the people".
"And I think they've managed, sort of, because today, when there is a protest or a march, a lot of Venezuelans are scared because" they do not want to be arrested. "
Prisoners of the helicopter waited days, weeks and even months to be tried.
"SEBIN is an institution whose mission is to produce intelligence and information, but it's not its role for a long time, its role is to defend a regime, a dictatorship."
While in jail, which lasted two and a half years, Mantilla said he was scared all the time.
Still, I felt compelled to document the torture and cruelty that occur daily on the helicoid.
When he arrived at Helicoid in 2014, Mantilla said that there were only 50 inmates. Two years later, they were already 300.
With the increase in the number of detainees, the guards have to improvise more space.
Commercial premises, bathrooms, stairways and spaces designed to be stores have been converted to cells.
The prisoners baptized them with names such as Aquarius, Tigrito and Infernito.
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"It was an old repository of documents," remembers Victor, another prison officer who worked on Helicoid. "He was 12 years old, it was hot, narrow and claustrophobic.
" There was no light, no water, no private sanitary facilities and no beds, "says Mantilla." The walls were stained with blood and excrement. "
Jailer Victor told BBC News World that prisoners could spend weeks there without bathing, urinating in bottles and defecating in plastic bags – which They called "small boats".
But mistreatment was not the only reason to be afraid of the helicoid.
All ex-prisoners and former prison officers who spoke to BBC News Mundo about their experiences described the systematic use of torture used by SEBIN to obtain confessions.
Carlos, a former detainee, states: "They covered my head with a sack, I was violently beaten, kicked, and received electric shocks to me. head, testicles and belly. "
"I felt tremendous humiliation, helplessness, shame, and indignation."
According to Luis, another inmate, "my head was covered, but I heard one of the agents of SEBIN say, "Let's go get the gun. We will kill you. "
" They laughed and said: There is only one bullet. Let's see if you're lucky today, "he said.
" I could feel the barrel in my head … and I heard the trigger click.
Reports indicate that confessions were tortured in the Sebin building in Venezuela – Photo: BBC "title =" Reports indicate that the torture in the construction Sebin in Venezuela was used to obtain confessions – photo: BBC " src = "data: image / jpeg; base64, / 9j / 4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD / 2wBDAAMCAgMCAgMDAwMEAwMEBQgFBQQEBQoHBwYIDAoMDAsKCwsNDhIQDQ4RDgsLEBYQERMUFRUVDA8XGBYUGBIUFRT / 2wBDAQMEBAUEBQkFBQkUDQsNFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBT / wgARCAAOABkDASIAAhEBAxEB / 8QAGAAAAwEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwYHBAX / xAAVAQEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAv / aAAwDAQACEAMQAAAB4gJaKLpyRiUE / 8QAHBAAAgICAwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwQABQECERIU / 9oACAEBAAEFAgYRsRU9O0m3bOiKL1rwI9wQzDna1CZPbjaf / 8QAFBEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEP / aAAgBAwEBPwE 8QAFBEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEP // / // aAAgBAgEBPwE 8QAIRAAAgEEAgIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAQIRAAMSMQQiE1EhMnL / 2gAIAQEABj 8CW099Q0yoDfY qD8q3ffA5THxH6mutzyIXMsTuK3RClT1z7D1QR + + // Q7YnWRivG7KxKzK1uv EABwQAQEAAgIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAERACExQRCh8P / aAAgBAQABPyFntI6iMrqsyGKnGYS6gMfX2zF69cm / T4VkihsLhAUcEwTmGSrTsFpn0c // 2gAMAwEAAgADAAAAEDtf / 8QAFhEBAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAER / 9oACAEDAQE / EFUP / 8QAFhEBAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAER / 9oACAECAQE / SPMS / 8QAHhABAAIBBAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAREhADFBYZFRodH / 2gAIAQEAAT8QJ45sjPcKBqXQ 1kf5ONLAV4EbgDnAFTAhcElENV3gqF4fr7m3y1QJ78YdcHrBJaBmq6wiyFEUJRNavOf3z // Z "/> "I heard about people who were raped with sharp objects, who were subjected to electric shocks, others who were bandaged for days, up to lose consciousness."
Violations of human rights
The two former prison officials who spoke to the BBC confirmed that acts of torture had been committed, but denied having participated in them.
"I saw people being beaten, tied up, hung up with their fists on a ladder ramp and their feet barely touching the ground," Victor says.
"They used a car battery charger with two cables attached to the detainees' skin to shock them," Manuel added.
"Torture was systematic," he adds. "It was a normal practice."
Many of these cases have been documented by international human rights organizations. In February 2018, the International Criminal Court opened a preliminary investigation into human rights violations committed during the demonstrations.
The Venezuelan government is committed to cooperating with the investigation.
In October 2016, after spending two and a half years on Helicoid, Mantilla fell so ill that the authorities allowed her to be operated on in a clinic.
The procedure was authorized by a judge, but at the time of the operation, SEBIN intervened. Shouting in pain, Mantilla was removed from the clinic and forced to return to Helicoid, where she remained in solitary confinement.
"It was as if you were suffering from an incurable disease, that you were locked in a room and that you would never be released.They were condemning me to death," he says.
Videos on social networks show slogans shouting at Mantilla when they are removed from the clinic and taken away in a SEBIN vehicle. International humanitarian organizations have called for his release.
After ten days, the government gives in to the pressure and Mantilla is first transferred to a military hospital and then to a clinic where he is finally operated on.
Mantilla was officially released in November 2016 and, a few days later, was sworn in as an MP – when he came to testify about what he had seen and experienced in the past. Axial.
"Crimes against humanity do not have an expiry date," he says.
But Mantilla never felt safe after his release and in July 2017 he left Venice for France. He received asylum last May.
Since his new address, he has been closely following developments in Venezuela and hopes to return to his native country one day. The time spent in the helicoid has changed his life forever.
"It has never been the same again … it's complicated because the helicoid has always been my home for two and a half years." Even though he was trying to deny it, he was largely staying there.
Manuel and Victor also left Venezuela and live abroad.
In May 2018, helicoid prisoners rebelled in protest at their precarious living conditions. As a result, many of them have been released and the government has promised improvements.
But according to the testimonies of those who stay there, little has been done to change the situation.
The BBC News World has repeatedly tried to contact the Venezuelan government about charges against the helicoid, but has received no response.
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